Sportsbet.io's English Premier League Football Pool Discussion Thread

[Trofo]

It usually is always about the money. Look at Mbappe. Looks like he was dead set on a move away, then voila, he's now very happy to stay once PSG have promised him a quarter of a billion over the next three years and looks like he's practically going to be a player-manager.

snip

Why would Salah or Mane even want to leave Liverpool, the club that arguably made them who they are today? I imagine it's purely financial because there's not many clubs you can go to where they're going to win more stuff than they do with Liverpool so it's almost certainly about just grabbing more cash as opposed to wanting more silverware. If Liverpool upped their wages there'd be no talk of wanting to leave I'm sure of it.

I think both Mbappe and PSG made a mistake here. Mbappe will not be happy playing "weak" French league without top results in CL and no other respectable player will come to a club where player is bigger then all the other players. This deal only makes sense if they just signed it so PSG can sell him in near future instead of loosing him for free.

It is probably just the case of money as you say it but there are some players that wanted to leave their mark across all major leagues. Don't think it is a case here and I am sure they would tell that as a reason if it were true.

[1714469555]

1714469555

[1714469555]

1714469555

[Welsh]

It usually is always about the money. Look at Mbappe. Looks like he was dead set on a move away, then voila, he's now very happy to stay once PSG have promised him a quarter of a billion over the next three years and looks like he's practically going to be a player-manager.

Yeah, I'm hoping it's the agent doing the talking rather than the player. It's almost like we get sent mixed signals because one week Salah is saying on an interview that it's not about the money, and he wants to retire at Liverpool. Then, another week we get the news that it's entirely about money, and it doesn't look like it's going to get done, and he would consider joining other rivals in the UK.

It's mad how things can change. I'm assuming that the agent wants to turn the fans against the board, but if the quoted figures are correct (in the £400k region) I actually think the fans will more likely want a replacement. That sounds weird saying, because I'm a massive fan of Salah, but he's not my favourite player, and he can sometimes be a little bit frustrating despite his quality. Although, the same could be said for Mane, and probably any player at some point in their career I suppose.

Something needs to be done about the finances but it'd just be a hollow gesture as I think it's already too late. The big clubs are already big and will stay that way and the rest will just battle it out for even a whiff of a dream of becoming a bigger one and actually challenging for something. I'm sure they will end up capping wages and clamping down on the fair play rules but that leads to 2 other main problems. They'll either just go to some other far off league that doesn't have such wage restrictions or clubs will just end up sweetening the deal behind the scenes ie, we'll pay you the max capped wage, but we'll also pay your mortgage/buy you a mansion and here's a free Lambo and a Rolex etc. Clubs could either keep this all off the books in the name of some off-shore company or just have it in their name and just let the players 'use/lease' the houses and cars from them for free. I'm sure stuff like this already goes on anyway, especially with the Neymars and Ronaldos of the world. There's probably no other way to get them without bribing them with some other luxuries, otherwise why go to them when there's plenty of other choices? There's also no loyalty with players these days either. Why would Salah or Mane even want to leave Liverpool, the club that arguably made them who they are today? I imagine it's purely financial because there's not many clubs you can go to where they're going to win more stuff than they do with Liverpool so it's almost certainly about just grabbing more cash as opposed to wanting more silverware. If Liverpool upped their wages there'd be no talk of wanting to leave I'm sure of it.

Yeah, I'd have to agree. To echo the common saying "The games gone" which is usually used in a sarcastic way, but I genuinely believe we lost it a while ago. As soon as certain organisations were allowed to buy clubs, and basically turn them into cash cows. Financial fair play has been a joke, and City proved that even when taken to court they could get away with it.

I do believe Ronaldo, and Messi have been investigated for tax issues, so what's to say that these players wouldn't take deal sweeteners that you allude to behind the scenes, I mean it's probably already happening to some extent.

I know there was a big uproar about the super league, but I genuinely believe we're already in one. Teams like City will never be challenged by the likes of Everton, unless Everton get bought out by a super rich owner. There's no making your way up the ladder any more, and I do think the English Premier League has been corrupted by international cash cows, and I think it goes without saying I'm not even being patriotic when I say that.

The only difference with the Super League was there was hard rules making sure successful clubs stay successful. However, at the moment we don't have those hard rules, but we technically have things which will prevent anyone, but the main 6 challenging. The year that Leicester won the league was absolutely brilliant, because it proved what football was all about. However, as time goes on those sort of surprise wins are going to be even more rare than they were back then. 

[buwaytress]

^ Can't believe I missed this thread but yeah, game's really kind of gone, in many ways. Still entertaining for the most, but I personally lost my only local tie a decade ago when my club vanished.

A new club sprung up 2 years ago when a group of business people bought one club not even from my state and renamed it with my old club's name.

Nothing local about it though, except later on when they recruited locals and not that I'm partisan or anything (or hell maybe I am) but there was some crazy nostalgia thing about guys from your patch of the woods mixing it up with continental superstars on a stage they would never have seen if they didn't kick a ball better than regular joes.

Anyway, popped in here to ask if anyone knows any new streaming deals for EPL with English commentary coming to Europe?

Dazn came here in December, but no football.
Amazon (with forced UK settings + VPN) had some games for a while, but seems like it was a trial, not sure next season.
FOX and ESPN have a local stream but commentary NOT in English, not all games, and you've to pay out of your nose for everything.

IPTV crap's... tried and tested and never satisfactory.

[hilariousetc]

It usually is always about the money. Look at Mbappe. Looks like he was dead set on a move away, then voila, he's now very happy to stay once PSG have promised him a quarter of a billion over the next three years and looks like he's practically going to be a player-manager.

Yeah, I'm hoping it's the agent doing the talking rather than the player. It's almost like we get sent mixed signals because one week Salah is saying on an interview that it's not about the money, and he wants to retire at Liverpool. Then, another week we get the news that it's entirely about money, and it doesn't look like it's going to get done, and he would consider joining other rivals in the UK.

It's always both parties being greedy. The player can easily shut down his agent if he's the catalyst trying to encourage a transfer and they don't want it but they usually do want to milk as much money out of their situation. The player can quite easily say I'm fine where I am and that would be the end of it. Their existing club will still up their wages when it comes to re-sign if they're desperate to keep them but that often won't compete with what another club is offering them so if they leave just for a bit of extra cash then it's purely financially motivated. There's really no loyalty left if football these days. Most players just go wherever they can get the most cash. Can I blame them? Not really, but for some you would think there's more loyalty to a club and fanbase that gave them everything as opposed to swanning off elsewhere just for an extra couple of million which they probably don't even need.

I do believe Ronaldo, and Messi have been investigated for tax issues, so what's to say that these players wouldn't take deal sweeteners that you allude to behind the scenes, I mean it's probably already happening to some extent.

They have, but Spain are seemingly pretty strict about tax issues, though you can usually always buy your way out of any serious repercussions or prison time etc. It's probably why they both left Spain. There's always going to be loopholes left to exploit and players like them two are going to have the best lawyers and accountants so they will always find a way to abuse both systems.

I know there was a big uproar about the super league, but I genuinely believe we're already in one. Teams like City will never be challenged by the likes of Everton, unless Everton get bought out by a super rich owner. There's no making your way up the ladder any more, and I do think the English Premier League has been corrupted by international cash cows, and I think it goes without saying I'm not even being patriotic when I say that.

The only difference with the Super League was there was hard rules making sure successful clubs stay successful. However, at the moment we don't have those hard rules, but we technically have things which will prevent anyone, but the main 6 challenging. The year that Leicester won the league was absolutely brilliant, because it proved what football was all about. However, as time goes on those sort of surprise wins are going to be even more rare than they were back then. 

You still get some smaller teams making it into the CL spots though, but it is obviously very difficulty given the number of big clubs and it's always going to be the same big 4 or 5 thereabouts. The Super League was a little different though. It was completely elitist and purely greedy from the start. It was just the big clubs wanting to make a league exclusively for them and nobody else so they can take all the money and split it up by themselves whilst making their own rules.

Anyway, popped in here to ask if anyone knows any new streaming deals for EPL with English commentary coming to Europe?

Dazn came here in December, but no football.
Amazon (with forced UK settings + VPN) had some games for a while, but seems like it was a trial, not sure next season.
FOX and ESPN have a local stream but commentary NOT in English, not all games, and you've to pay out of your nose for everything.

IPTV crap's... tried and tested and never satisfactory.

I use the Spanish Dazn but it doesn't have English commentary. The Canadian one does and I used that before but I kept running into proxy issues so I went with the Spanish one once my subscription ran out. It might be ok now though or may just depend on the proxy you use. Try find someone in Canada and see if you can get them to create you an account. You can't sign up for it with proxy but once the account is created it's using a proxy is usually fine. You can pay pay as you go monthly and they even used to do one month free trial so you can give it a go and if it doesn't work just cancel it after a month. I have both the German and Spanish Dazns and they're both well worth the money. I split them with a friend as well as two people can watch at once. Between them both I have all the boxing, all UFC fights and pretty much all the biggest football leagues inn Europe.

[casperBGD]

new season starts on August 5th
it is due to World Cup in November that season starts much earlier than previous seasons

Fulham, Nottingham and Bournmouth are new members, Crystal Palace vs Arsenal is first match
will be interesting to see who will be better, with a long mid-season pause due to World Cup

[swogerino]

new season starts on August 5th
it is due to World Cup in November that season starts much earlier than previous seasons

Fulham, Nottingham and Bournmouth are new members, Crystal Palace vs Arsenal is first match
will be interesting to see who will be better, with a long mid-season pause due to World Cup

Another thing,depending on the cost of the pool maybe the pool participants will love the option to pay in advance the Bitcoin fees as the price of Bitcoin is a lot cheaper compared to last year.Since it is irrelevant to us the price in USD I think it would be a good idea to start accepting participants money in Bitcoin starting from now,we would pay less in dollars but the same amount in Bitcoin for example if the fee is 30 USD we can pay 0.0015 Bitcoin and if it is 40 USD we can pay 0.002 Bitcoin.Of course the option to pay near the start of the pool to be available for those who want to pay then.

[hilariousetc]

new season starts on August 5th
it is due to World Cup in November that season starts much earlier than previous seasons

Fulham, Nottingham and Bournmouth are new members, Crystal Palace vs Arsenal is first match
will be interesting to see who will be better, with a long mid-season pause due to World Cup

Another thing,depending on the cost of the pool maybe the pool participants will love the option to pay in advance the Bitcoin fees as the price of Bitcoin is a lot cheaper compared to last year.Since it is irrelevant to us the price in USD I think it would be a good idea to start accepting participants money in Bitcoin starting from now,we would pay less in dollars but the same amount in Bitcoin for example if the fee is 30 USD we can pay 0.0015 Bitcoin and if it is 40 USD we can pay 0.002 Bitcoin.Of course the option to pay near the start of the pool to be available for those who want to pay then.

I usually don't start taking in the money until a week or so before the league starts because the price can fluctuate so much in the space of a month or so. Somebody could end up paying nearly double more or likely less the way things are going. Depending on which way the price goes it can be unfair to those who pay either early or late, or become too high of a fee to play, so that's why I like to state roughly what the fee is likely to be in fiat then try to make it a nice round number in btc nearer the time and collect the money in one go nearer the time so it's fairer to everyone. The fee in the past has been between £25-40 in GBP fiat so I'd like to make it something like 0.002 or 0.0025 which would be fine as it stands but maybe not if the price keeps tanking.

0.0015 btc is currently 31.85 USD or 25.75 GBP
0.002 btc is currently 42.48 USD or 34.36 GBP
0.0025 btc is currently 53.13 USD or 42.98 GBP
0.003 btc is currently 63.63 USD or 51.46 GBP

I'd be fine with £50 but I don't want to price people out, but at the same time with a free $50 weekly bet up for grabs it's still a very good deal especially for an entire seasons worth of entertainment that is not going to have you chasing your losses  . 0.0025 is probably what I'd aim for right now.

Once I get the confirmation from Sportsbet on their sponsorship I'll start the sign-up thread asap.

[SATWAT]

new season starts on August 5th
it is due to World Cup in November that season starts much earlier than previous seasons

Fulham, Nottingham and Bournmouth are new members, Crystal Palace vs Arsenal is first match
will be interesting to see who will be better, with a long mid-season pause due to World Cup

Another thing,depending on the cost of the pool maybe the pool participants will love the option to pay in advance the Bitcoin fees as the price of Bitcoin is a lot cheaper compared to last year.Since it is irrelevant to us the price in USD I think it would be a good idea to start accepting participants money in Bitcoin starting from now,we would pay less in dollars but the same amount in Bitcoin for example if the fee is 30 USD we can pay 0.0015 Bitcoin and if it is 40 USD we can pay 0.002 Bitcoin.Of course the option to pay near the start of the pool to be available for those who want to pay then.

I usually don't start taking in the money until a week or so before the league starts because the price can fluctuate so much in the space of a month or so. Somebody could end up paying nearly double more or likely less the way things are going. Depending on which way the price goes it can be unfair to those who pay either early or late, or become too high of a fee to play, so that's why I like to state roughly what the fee is likely to be in fiat then try to make it a nice round number in btc nearer the time and collect the money in one go nearer the time so it's fairer to everyone. The fee in the past has been between £25-40 in GBP fiat so I'd like to make it something like 0.002 or 0.0025 which would be fine as it stands but maybe not if the price keeps tanking.

0.0015 btc is currently 31.85 USD or 25.75 GBP
0.002 btc is currently 42.48 USD or 34.36 GBP
0.0025 btc is currently 53.13 USD or 42.98 GBP
0.003 btc is currently 63.63 USD or 51.46 GBP

I'd be fine with £50 but I don't want to price people out, but at the same time with a free $50 weekly bet up for grabs it's still a very good deal especially for an entire seasons worth of entertainment that is not going to have you chasing your losses  . 0.0025 is probably what I'd aim for right now.

Once I get the confirmation from Sportsbet on their sponsorship I'll start the sign-up thread asap.

I will also in for this competition and wait for update thanks.

[Trofo]

I am in for the next season no matter what the buy in gets to be. Thanks for the heads up on the early season start. I knew that it will probably start early due to WC but still did not expect it to start as early as this.

Catch you all in new season. This time my goal is to win one yellow cap. Never got it in PL and this will be my 4th season.

[arallmuus]

0.0025 is probably what I'd aim for right now.
-snip
Once I get the confirmation from Sportsbet on their sponsorship I'll start the sign-up thread asap.

Well its finally time for redemption I guess, I was one of the worst aside from all those people that quit halfway so Im in next season ! The buy in is totally reasonable and Im pretty sure the previous pool wont have any issue with it. Btc is tanking anyway so yeah better to use it on something rather than having it stays on wallet lol

I knew that it will probably start early due to WC but still did not expect it to start as early as this.

Earlier is better isnt it. It gets kinda boring when you have no weekend football to watch so yeah glad that they started this early

[Harkorede]

I'm definitely in for next season too, it's also better now that BTC is dropping in terms of value and we can hope for a run towards to the end for the season, but that'd be advantageous to only the set of winners.

I'd also root for an early sign up, maybe we can get much users.

[LTU_btc]

I'm fine with 0.0025 BTC if it's not too much for other users. Yeah, BTC now is falling crazy, but I expect that in the end of season rewards may look very sweet .

I use the Spanish Dazn but it doesn't have English commentary. The Canadian one does and I used that before but I kept running into proxy issues so I went with the Spanish one once my subscription ran out. It might be ok now though or may just depend on the proxy you use. Try find someone in Canada and see if you can get them to create you an account. You can't sign up for it with proxy but once the account is created it's using a proxy is usually fine. You can pay pay as you go monthly and they even used to do one month free trial so you can give it a go and if it doesn't work just cancel it after a month. I have both the German and Spanish Dazns and they're both well worth the money. I split them with a friend as well as two people can watch at once. Between them both I have all the boxing, all UFC fights and pretty much all the biggest football leagues inn Europe.

Canadian DAZN doesn't have EPL. There is Fubo.TV in Canada with EPL, Serie A and more sports, it costs about $15. But I haven't tried it, so I'm not sure is it possible to sign up there and use it with VPN. German and Spanish DAZN with all their content would be great, but absence of English language is big disadvantage.

[tomahawk9]

Fulham, Nottingham and Bournmouth are new members, Crystal Palace vs Arsenal is first match

yoyo team spotted. You know the drill, Fulham to get relegated @ whatever odds you find is free money  and opening day match goes to Arsenal eh, don't think the fans are happy about this, just saw some stats and the Gunners have a woeful record against Palace since the 18/19 season: 1W 5D 2L

[Trofo]

Fulham, Nottingham and Bournmouth are new members, Crystal Palace vs Arsenal is first match

yoyo team spotted. You know the drill, Fulham to get relegated @ whatever odds you find is free money  and opening day match goes to Arsenal eh, don't think the fans are happy about this, just saw some stats and the Gunners have a woeful record against Palace since the 18/19 season: 1W 5D 2L

Like your Fulham tip, they are as you say, yoyo team. Same goes for their star striker Mitrović. He scores shitload of goals in lower devision, they get promoted, everbody takes him in their fantasy teams and then he can't do anything when playing in the big boys league.

Arsenal game has blunder written all over it. Perfect opportunity to place something on CP.

[tokeweed]

So who won the season for the bragging rights and how much were the prizes?  

I am in for the next season no matter what the buy in gets to be. Thanks for the heads up on the early season start. I knew that it will probably start early due to WC but still did not expect it to start as early as this.

Catch you all in new season. This time my goal is to win one yellow cap. Never got it in PL and this will be my 4th season.

Yeah I'm coming in back again and will be joining you guys next season.  I'm find with dropping in at 50 GBP and hopefully we see BTC rise back up and see at least triple that come end of the season next year.  

And who says Fullham goes down?  I got 10 bucks for fun that says they won't..  Give me 3 to 1.  I guess that's more than fair?

[buwaytress]

I'm happy with the 3 mbtc pool fee, and if there are new people wanting to join and they feel they're priced out because of that, I guess we could ask but I seem to recall the fee not really being an issue when we asked people before (and that was when BTC was a bit more than it is today).

@tokes sure. I'll take you on. You'll have to remind me if I forget though.

I use the Spanish Dazn but it doesn't have English commentary. The Canadian one does and I used that before but I kept running into proxy issues so I went with the Spanish one once my subscription ran out. It might be ok now though or may just depend on the proxy you use. Try find someone in Canada and see if you can get them to create you an account. You can't sign up for it with proxy but once the account is created it's using a proxy is usually fine. You can pay pay as you go monthly and they even used to do one month free trial so you can give it a go and if it doesn't work just cancel it after a month. I have both the German and Spanish Dazns and they're both well worth the money. I split them with a friend as well as two people can watch at once. Between them both I have all the boxing, all UFC fights and pretty much all the biggest football leagues inn Europe.

Thanks! Yeah I'd happily pay for Dazn, just the one locally available doesn't have ANY football, just pure boxing and Women's Champions League (which actually is free to watch on their own youtube anyway). So it looks like I'll have to look for someone in Canada, might need to tap a few shoulders for that if can't do it on my own (Amazon UK e.g. needs a UK card, which I happen to have from 2016 days but that's now expired and can't be renewed per Brexit haha).

Anyone from forum pool willing to split or offer me a way for EPL/UCL games? (English please) I'm actually even happy to pay for the full thing if I can watch it on my TV or even laptop.

Fulham, Nottingham and Bournmouth are new members, Crystal Palace vs Arsenal is first match

yoyo team spotted. You know the drill, Fulham to get relegated @ whatever odds you find is free money   and opening day match goes to Arsenal eh, don't think the fans are happy about this, just saw some stats and the Gunners have a woeful record against Palace since the 18/19 season: 1W 5D 2L

Like your Fulham tip, they are as you say, yoyo team. Same goes for their star striker Mitrović. He scores shitload of goals in lower devision, they get promoted, everbody takes him in their fantasy teams and then he can't do anything when playing in the big boys league.

Arsenal game has blunder written all over it. Perfect opportunity to place something on CP.

I made a good start last season betting against Arsenal and City in opener, they're both a bit silly when season starts, experimental and very bad at player conditioning.

Fulham, man I really didn't want them back in EPL. Sadly, Liverpool outright not as good as last season (9/1)... now it's 32/10, so no money tied up for me there.

[cryptofrka]

I will join as well, no matter the fact that I cannot get anything going my way for a few seasons already. I am fine with the higher buy-ins.

I am in for the next season no matter what the buy in gets to be. Thanks for the heads up on the early season start. I knew that it will probably start early due to WC but still did not expect it to start as early as this.

Catch you all in new season. This time my goal is to win one yellow cap. Never got it in PL and this will be my 4th season.

Likewise, we are basically a statistical anomaly

[casperBGD]

I am also fine with 3mBTC entry fee

not sure about Fulham, yeah they basically are yoyo, but there are other shitty candidates as well, hopefully Everton will have better season, and fight for Europe, not relegation

what you guys think of Nottingham chances, are they back on winning tracks, or join Fulham in getting relegated? they will be my second fan team, replacing Leeds next season

[Trofo]

what you guys think of Nottingham chances, are they back on winning tracks, or join Fulham in getting relegated? they will be my second fan team, replacing Leeds next season

Not sure they have the squad to stay in the league at the moment but it is still early and they have enough time to bring additional quality.

I would love them to stay and recover a bit if their rich history but it will not be easy.

Everton is rich club and I expect them to fight for europa league spots this season. Hopefully DCL will be injury free and he means a lot to them.

[swogerino]

I will most probably be on vacation during August as always but I think @hilarious won't say no to someone who at the worst will pay 5-10 September at max (just like last year I think) but I prefer to pay much sooner than that this year hopefully.This is to say that I too am taking part in the upcoming pool and damn how I am eager to compete again after missing the final prize place for just 2 or 3 points I don't remember well,and it felt really great to be the leader of the standings for a couple of weeks in the beginning of the tournament.